Saturday, August 5, 2017

A Baker’s Double Dozen of Neglected Russian Stories – No. 94

Paul
Goble

Staunton, August 5 -- The flood of news
stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as the Russian Federation
often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there
needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in detail but which
are too indicative of broader developments to ignore.

Consequently, Windows on Eurasia each week
presents a selection of these other and typically neglected stories at the end
of each week. This is the 93rd such compilation, and it is again a
double issue with 26 from Russia and 13 from Russia’s neighbors. Even then, it
is far from complete, but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of
broader interest.

2.Trump, ‘Weak and
No Longer Ours,” Sees His Support in Russia Fall by More than 50 Percent. Following the
overwhelming Congressional vote to increase sanctions on Russia and not allow
the president to change them without legislative approval and Donald Trump’s
announcement that he would sign the measure, Dmitry Medvedev described the US
president as “weak” and “no longer ours.” That led Trump to criticize the
Congress for its action (graniru.org/Politics/World/US/RF/m.263023.html).
Meanwhile, a new poll found that only 18 percent of Russians have a positive
view of Trump, down from 38 percent earlier this year (snob.ru/selected/entry/127658).And Russian outlets picked up on US
commentaries suggesting that “Trump is a minor figure in Russian organized
crimes” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5980A70329C33).

16.Ever More Russians
Blame Elites rather than West for Their Problems.Polls show that ever more Russians believe
that their problems arise from the behavior of Russian elites rather than from
any action by the West (rosbalt.ru/posts/2017/07/27/1634179.html).

21.Rosneft Names
Former German Chancellor to Its Board. Russia’s Rosneft company has named
Gerhard Schroeder to its board, yet another way that politics and economics
have been combined in Moscow strategy (snob.ru/selected/entry/127651).

22.Putin’s
Inconsistent Actions on the Environment. Vladimir Putin has ordered the
elimination of restrictions on economic activity near Lake Baikal, further
threating that national treasure (sobkorr.ru/news/59842013AE8F2.html) even as he has
very publicly promised to do more to clean up that body of water (regions.ru/news/2608678/). Many Russian
businesses are pressing for the elimination of even more environmental
restrictions arguing that such things are leading to the de-industrialization
of the country (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/43447#more-43447).

24.Fools and Roads
Convert in Yekaterinburg. A road construction crew in Yekaterinburg confronted
with a car parked where it was scheduled to repave the street solved the
problem by simply paving over much of the car (vk.com/wall-32182751_3903558).

25.Young Turning to
First Channel for Entertainment, Not News. Russian officials have celebrated
recent poll findings showing that young Russians view the First Channel more
often than any other, but analysts say they do so because that outlet has the
best entertainment programs not because the young people rely on it for news (ura.news/articles/1036271643).

4.Ukrainians Attack
Separatist Monument in Luhansk; Moscow Occupiers Plan to Put Up Castro Statue
in Crimea.A monument to pro-Moscow separatists in
Luhansk was blown up by Ukrainians last week (http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=598020C1D28E5). Meanwhile,
Russian occupiers in Crimea announced that they will soon erect a state to
Fidel Castro on the Ukrainian peninsula (ru.krymr.com/a/28656321.html). Whether that
will do anything to fill the peninsula’s hotels, which remain one third vacant
at this peak season, remains to be seen (sobkorr.ru/news/5983134C6A47D.html).

5.US Said Promoting
Intermarium; EU Actively Pushing Poland to Black Sea Waterway.Russian commentators say the United States is
behind the Intermarium security discussions linking states between the Russian
Federation and the EU (gazeta.ru/comments/2017/07/27_a_10808210.shtml). Meanwhile, the
EU is very publicly promoting the development to a waterway between Poland and
the Black Sea via Belarus and Ukraine (rosbalt.ru/world/2017/08/02/1635397.html). Moscow is
concerned about both: As Putin’s spokesman put it, Russia doesn’t mind if the
countries to its west cooperate on a one-to-one relationship with Western
countries but very much opposes their joining any Western structures that moves
the borders of these organizations toward Russia (rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/08/01/1635116.html).

9.Tashkent Opens Second
Chance University. The
Uzbekistan government has opened a special pedagogical institute for those who
failed to get into its regular university system (fergananews.com/news/26697).

12.Kazakhstan
Says No Kazakh is to Go Abroad to Study Islam.Like other Central Asian countries,
Kazakhstan has taken a number of steps to restrict Kazakh Muslims from studying
abroad. Astana has now banned all of them from going abroad to study in
religious institutions (interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=67840). It is likely to
discover, as Turkmenistanhas, that
taking that step is unlikely to dramatically affect the situation at home (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1501772700).

13.Kyrgyz Muslims Ask Mullahs to Determine Which Sex Toys
are Halal.Muslims require that their religious
authorities certify that food and other goods are halal, that is, pure
according to Islamic norms. Now a group of Muslims in Kyrgyzstan has taken the
next logical step and asked mullahs there to identify which sex toys are halal
and acceptable and those which are haram and thus banned (narynaiyp.com/islam-v-centralnoj-azii-ot-vaxxabizma-do-seks-shopov/).